Category Archives: More Time

Increased productivity is at the heart of what drives all development and increases in performance and productivity. A combination of intelligent planning and focused efforts, productivity is something that can be continuously improved.

Being productive in yourself is one thing. But how can leaders and manager successfully inspire productivity in those around them?

In this eBook you will find insights on how you can direct your team to become more productive by focusing on key areas for improvement including processes, training and management tips.

As with your personal productivity, there isn’t one isolated tip that will switch your team members’ lights on from second gear to full throttle. Read through the tips and find the ones that most resonate with you.

Use the form above to download the 50 Tips to Power Up Your Team’s Productivity eBook, share it on social media or print and keep it as a reminder.

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” Paul J. Meyer

Harnessing the power of productivity can drastically change the way you feel in your role, in your home life and about your own development.

Being more productive means you can get more out of each day, in less time and with less resources. It’s the ultimate win-win for both you and for your organisation.

The big question is: how do we become more productive?

There is no one single trick that will turn up the dial on your productivity. Instead, we’ve provided you with 50 of Leadership Management Australia’s top tips for boosting your time, energy and attention for the sake of your personal productivity.

Use the form above to download the 50 Tips to Power Up Your Productivity eBook, share it on social media or print and keep it as a reminder.

What a work group must achieve; to work together to solve the problem. However, there are many ways for a team to communicate ineffectively, so it is integral that any team or project group know what can and should happen in team environments.

If your organisation often requires group projects and collaborative meetings then it is important to know how to communicate effectively and get the most productivity out of your team.

Leave Emotions at the Door

It is human nature to get emotional about issues we are passionate about, or to take offence when others don’t agree with our views. However, when we let our emotions get the better of us we can become less productive and the whole discussion can fall apart and the only result you get will be arguments or hurt feelings.

If you feel like a fellow team member is being disrespectful to your views it is important to find a constructive way to communicate that to them. At the same time, everyone needs to keep an open mind and engage in active listening. Active listening means everyone should be taking notes, asking relevant questions to what is being discussed and even repeating what another team member has said to clarify their meaning if you are unsure. People can make assumptions on something that is said, rather than taking it for its true meaning. If this is the case, asking questions and repeating what someone has said will help you to clarify their exact meaning.

Effective Management

Any team needs to have someone leading the discussion, whether it be a manager in the organisation or a team member elected before the meeting. The most important aspect of this person’s role is to keep everyone in order and identify when effective communication is lacking.

An effective leader needs to be on top of what is being discussed and keep everyone on track. Make sure the team keeps its focus and sticks to the matters at hand.

Teams can spend too much time discussing the issue or task, rather than implementing strategies to solve the problem – a team leader’s job is to ensure this doesn’t happen. If they notice that a problem is not getting solved they need to address it with the team and get them communicating more effectively and working on their problem solving skills.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Try to identify any issues that you think may arise when you are setting a new task or deadline, rather than letting the issue present itself and reacting accordingly. If problems are handled in a reactive way then the team will always be a step behind, which can cause unwanted stress and affect productivity.

One way to be proactive is to determine what tasks are the most critical and delay the non-critical tasks. A great way to do this is to keep a spreadsheet, or similar style list, that details everything the team needs to discuss or accomplish. Label items that are critical or place date deadlines on them and highlight items that can be held to a later date. This ensures you are discussing only what you need to and can focus your time on the most important items. As a result, the team can adequately discuss the task and present their ideas and any concerns, so that if problems arise, they can address them swiftly.

Each team member should make a list of the items you feel are the most important to discuss, that way you come into the discussion prepared to address your views in the best way possible. Meetings can often get off track when people ‘wing it’ and don’t pre plan what they want to discuss or issues they need to address.

Being proactive also requires looking at the processes in your company in order to ensure that, if a problem does arise, dysfunctional processes don’t inflame the situation and create frustration. Create a flow chart of responsibilities so that each team member knows where to go if the need presents itself and there is no undue waste caused by lack of communication and going to the wrong area for resolution.

Get all team members involved in being proactive, as they can better advise of any task-related difficulties in their particular area, which can help to anticipate and avoid future problems.

When teams run effectively it helps to create a harmonious environment for all employees and increases productivity and profitability.

A great indication of a successful manager is one who has employees who are motivated to perform their jobs at a high level. It is easy to see that higher employee motivation leads to more productivity and therefore more profitable business growth. Therefore, it is important for a manager to understand motivation and how to garner it from their employees.

Motivation, and what triggers it, has been studied for decades and workplace leaders have used assessments to determine an employee’s personality and better anticipate their behaviours. But assessment scores alone will not show you all you need to know, it is important for managers to get to know their staff and learn how to be more specific in their approach to motivating them and understanding their goals and aspirations.

As great as it would be, there is no one method to motivate your employees. Your employees are all very different from one another, so different factors affect their motivation. Some people are motivated by money, others by rewards, some prefer recognition, and some people just motivate themselves to achieve. Supervisors and managers need to utilise a number of different strategies and techniques to increase their employee’s motivation and productivity.

We have compiled a list of motivational strategies for managers to apply in order to harness the most productivity and results from their staff, and to provide a happy, thriving working environment.

Motivator 1 – Trust

This is one of the most important aspects in any organisation and it is a two way street. Employees want to know that their manager is looking out for their best interests, which motivates them to succeed. In turn, leaders also want to know that they can trust their staff to do their jobs properly. It is up to the manager to ensure this trust is built with their employees and to be able to communicate effectively with each individual and foster positive relationships.

Motivator 2 – Reward System

Incentives are a great way to promote motivation. Employers can use many types of incentives or reward programs to increase productivity and motivation among staff. Incentives can come in many forms, whether it be bonuses, paid time off, travel perks, or vouchers. It offers employees something to strive for and gives them a bit of healthy competition.

Motivator 3 – Recognition

The simple of act of letting an employee know they are doing a great job and recognising their efforts can do wonders for their motivation. As humans, we like to hear when what we are doing is appreciated and it creates a sense of accomplishment. In turn, this motivates us to keep achieving and keep receiving recognition. Of course, there is no need to recognise everything someone does, but make sure you take the time to congratulate a job well done.

Motivator 4 – Career Advancement

Employees are much more likely to achieve if it means that a career advancement lies ahead of them. As a manager, you can sustain this motivation by ensuring there are avenues and opportunities for your employees to advance in their positions. You can also provide them with opportunities for further qualifications or on the job workshops. It lets them know they are valued and makes them more committed to their positions. In fact, LMA’s L.E.A.D Survey 2013 showed that 79% of employees said that opportunities for training and development is ‘Quite’ or ‘Very Important’ to their decision to stay in their current organisations. Visit LMA’s Principles of Learning to establish the best direction for implementing learning in your organisation

Motivator 5 – Happiness

At the end of the day, if employees are happy in their jobs they are more motivated to do the best job they can. As a manager, you need to be aware of whether your employees are satisfied or not. Don’t assume that simply having a conversation with them regarding their happiness will be enough, they may smile and say yes if they think it is what you want to hear or if they are worried their job is on the line. The process to happiness and job satisfaction can be influenced by ensuring the previous factors are evident in your company and letting happiness be an organic process.

As a manager, it is important that you are focused on ways to continuously improve your business and staff. Finding ways to keep your staff motivated to perform at their best is a key part of any managerial role. If managers can understand the factors that lead to employees performing at higher levels, they can increase the performance of entire departments.

Can you identify ways that you can implement some of these motivational techniques for higher productivity in your business?

How often do we tell ourselves there aren’t enough hours in the day, that we don’t have enough time to get everything done, and that we certainly couldn’t fit in any new projects. Not having enough time can lead to worry and stress, which means even less tasks being completed.

The truth is, there is a way for you to create enough time in the day for you to accomplish what you want to, but it is the inability to manage your time effectively and efficiently that leads to chaos and stress.

But just saying there is a solution doesn’t always mean we follow it; many of us have seen the articles that tell us how to manage our time effectively, but never seem to take notice of them. Why is that?

We all know how different people can be, which means how we operate can be immensely different. The key is to find what works best for you and to adjust it to your style. In addition, the key to implementing an effective time management system is repetition. Repetition makes a habit, and that habit will make you much more effective at time management in both your work and home life.

So how do you find the method that works best for you? Below are a list of the most effective time management methods used and how to use them; not all of these are necessary to adopt in to your daily lifestyle, the best thing to do is find one that you know you can stick to and go from there. If you over commit yourself to trying to implement every suggestion you will find that none of them stick and you are back where you started.

Effective Time Management Tools:

To Do List

This is probably the best place to start for anyone looking to improve their time management. Some of us think that we can keep all of our tasks in our heads with no need to write them down, but it simply isn’t feasible. We will always forget something along the way or remember it too late. Each morning you should write your to-do-list for the day and as soon as something else comes up, write that down too. By visually acknowledging and tracking what you need to do you will find yourself becoming much more productive. There is also the excitement that follows marking off a task, knowing you are one step closer to your daily, weekly, or long term goals.

Prioritise

If you can work out what needs to be done in your day then you will already notice a boost in your productivity. One of the biggest problems people face with effective time management is that they don’t always consider what it is they need to be doing and how long it will take them to do it. Each morning you should prioritise your day – what is important? What can wait? By working that out you can get focused on what you need to and get things done faster.

Avoid Distractions

Interruptions can be detrimental to your time management, to your performance and to the performance of those around you. Of course, interruptions can happen and are not avoidable at all times, but it is important to set aside some time where you aren’t interrupted. If you are at work, close your door and take your phone off the hook – it lets people know that you are in the middle of something important and that they should come back another time. It is also important to leave your emails unattended in that time so that you don’t get off track with your current task. The same goes with working from home, place your phone on silent and out of reach, keep your email browser closed and keep your head in the game, focusing on what you want to get done.

Breaks

Always ensure you give yourself time for a break. At the start of the day, whether you are writing a list or prioritising, make sure one of those priorities is a block of time to clear your head. A 15 minute break can work wonders for you and makes you much more productive upon return – go for a walk, read a book, make a snack, anything that gets you away from your workspace for a while. You will find that the time away refocuses you.

Perseverance

Whether you have a list or not, things don’t always go according to plan and we run in to snags along the way, the important thing here is how to deal with it. If you let yourself give up or get angry it can be detrimental to both your work and your overall wellbeing.

Log your time

A great way to see where you are spending too much or not enough of your time is by keeping a time log. Keep a notebook beside you, or even a digital document open, to log when you start something and when you finish it, as well as any hiccups you encountered along the way. This goes well with prioritising, as it will give you the ability to see where you need to dedicate more or less time to things.

Implementing just one of these steps can put you on the path to better time management and becoming much more effective and efficient. Once you implement one step, you may even find yourself on track to implement others.

You need to choose to want to change your habits, as no one but you can change how you operate. Don’t let your day run you, make sure you run your day- your way!

We all receive the same amount of time in each day. It is up to you on how effective you are with that time. Do you use it for profit or pleasure? Are you using your time effectively?

Time is perishable; it cannot be saved or stored up. Whether you use the time given to you wisely, or squander it foolishly, it’s gone. Effective time management does not create additional time, it just helps you utilise the time you have available to you more effectively and productively.

While the requests and demands of others play a large role in determining how your time is spent, you ultimately control your own time. Most of the tasks you perform can be grouped into four general categories: planning, communication, directing and doing.

Time for planning

Time for completing your High Payoff Activities (HPA’s)

You were hired because of your knowledge and skills and how you could apply these to the achievement of your role. Therefore, identify your HPA’s and schedule your day and week to ensure you spend as much time as is required to achieve them. Your HPA’s drive the accomplishment of yours and your team’s goals.

Time for communicating

Communicate goals and plans to those whose cooperation is needed. Remember that communication is a two-way operation involving both talking and listening.

Time for directing

Direct your activities and the activities of others by choosing what to do and then use all the knowledge you can find about how best to do it. Help others identify their priorities and HPA’s, then use effective delegation and instruction to ensure you accomplish more in less time.

Analyse your time use. Are there areas in which can save time and effort by eliminating, combining, or rearranging tasks or activities? Your time is your most important possession because your time is your life. Use your time productively each day.

“I recommend you take care of the minutes for the hours will take care of themselves…” Lord Chesterfield

Time management can have a powerful influence on success in the workplace. Equipping your people with a wide range of time management skills can determine the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness through which your organisation achieves success.

Leadership Management Australasia (LMA) has a number of courses that develop time management skills and best practice for increased productivity. We teach you how to manage competing priorities to gain more control of your time at work and in your personal life.

LMA’s time management courses and productivity courses are suitable for anyone who wants to learn how to better manage their time and the time of their people for greater efficiency and productivity.

Regardless of whether you need to improve your own time management skills and productivity or the time management skills and productivity of the people you lead, LMA has a course to suit your needs. To discuss which course is most appropriate to your current needs, please contact LMA.

Leadership Management Australia (LMA) has a number of courses that develop time management skills and best practice for increased productivity. We teach you how to manage competing priorities to gain more control of your time at work and in your personal life.

LMA management and productivity courses are suitable for anyone who wants to learn how to better manage their time and the time of their people for greater efficiency and productivity.

Use the form above to download this handy poster, share it on social media or print and keep it as a reminder.